Funding Your Sportsbook With Bitcoin

Updated July 3, 2018

With the advent of cryptocurrency in 2009, any worthy sportsbook allows you to fund your account with digital currencies, including Bitcoin.

In this guide, we’ll give you a rundown on the benefits of using Bitcoin as a method of deposit at your online sportsbook, as well as provide important information on how you can successfully deposit and bet with crypto.

Disclaimer: Don’t Use Crypto-Only Sportsbooks

With Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies surging in popularity and accessibility, more sportsbooks accept them as a method of deposit.

We strongly recommend that you use a licensed, online sportsbook that has integrated cryptocurrency into their platforms, instead of sportsbooks that are exclusively crypto-based. If you don’t, you run the risk of handing over crypto to bad actors.

For example, both BetVip.com and Bitbook.biz were once-promising, crypto-only sportsbooks. They’ve since exited from the sports betting industry after going bankrupt. The majority of bettors who funded accounts at these sportsbooks weren’t able to recoup the crypto they had invested, providing a harsh lesson in the dangers of unlicensed sportsbooks.

Use Safe and Legitimate Sportsbooks With Confidence

We recommend using online sportsbooks that have been vetted for quality, reliability, efficiency, and expediency. Using newer sportsbooks – which haven’t had enough time to build a reputation for safe financial practices – isn’t something that we’d advise.

The top sportsbooks we review all have sterling reputations, and many have been working with sports bettors for more than 20 years.

What Are the Benefits of Depositing with Bitcoin?

Using Bitcoin has advantages over traditional banking methods that involve an intermediary. Banks have zero involvement in Bitcoin’s issuance, storage, and transfer. This means that Bitcoin is free from any of the standard fees associated with traditional banks.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, acquiring cryptocurrency can occasionally be laborious and complicated. Bettors, however, will discover many benefits from making a crypto deposit at their sportsbook.

Here’s a quick rundown of why it’s advantageous to use Bitcoin at your sportsbook:

Cryptocurrency transactions will always go through, and they’ll never be rejected by a third-party intermediary.

Bitcoin generally has the highest maximum deposit of any method. This includes credit cards, eWallets, and bank transfers.

You don’t have to verify your identity or reveal personal information, and Bitcoin transactions are anonymous, virtually untraceable, and verifiable without any of your personal info.

With Bitcoin, you only have to pay the “miner’s fee.”

Cryptocurrency transactions are given high priority at your sportsbook, and our longest deposit took 40 minutes. The deposit process is usually completed within 15 minutes.

You can receive many Bitcoin-specific deposit bonuses just for depositing with the cryptocurrency.

Sportsbooks Will Convert Your Bitcoin to USD Before Betting

All the sportsbooks we review and recommend to bettors instantly convert Bitcoin to USD at the time of deposit. This way, bettors are protected from any significant fluctuations in Bitcoin’s value.

Additionally, it’s significantly easier to use dollar units ($) over cryptocurrency units (BTC) as a method of accounting in sports bets. For example, calculating payouts with dollar values ($10 USD) rather than the equivalent value represented in Bitcoin (0.0015 BTC).

Use a Personal Bitcoin Wallet When Depositing, Not an Exchange

When sending cryptocurrency to your sportsbook, we recommend not doing so directly from a cryptocurrency exchange. We strongly recommend that (after acquiring Bitcoin) you send your crypto to your own personal crypto wallet before rerouting it to your sportsbook.

Unlike eWallets, cryptocurrency exchanges are subject to both AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations. As such, they occasionally draw the ire of regulators for helping clients send their funds to unrecognized online sportsbooks.

In response to this, many online crypto exchanges restrict clients who try to send their crypto to addresses known to be connected to online sportsbooks. Coinbase, in particular, has a reputation for freezing the accounts of its customers who send their crypto to an online sportsbook.

This isn’t because there’s anything illegal or unsafe about sending money to sportsbooks. It comes down to crypto exchanges trying to save themselves a headache when dealing with financial regulatory body scrutiny.

If you choose to send Bitcoin from a crypto exchange directly to your sportsbook (without first transferring it to your own personal wallet), you won’t lose your crypto. Instead, you just risk your crypto exchange freezing your assets and barring you from making any further transactions on the trading platform.

Additional Bitcoin Resources to Get You on Your Feet

If you’ve still got any lingering questions about using cryptocurrency at your sportsbook, we’ve got your back. For the nitty-gritty details on exactly how to deposit with crypto, we created a detailed step-by-step guide for the entire process.

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